


the stars in your eyes

by prosodiical



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon, Romance, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 03:42:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13138341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prosodiical/pseuds/prosodiical
Summary: Avad finds Aloy again hours later on one of the palace's balconies, looking up at the darkened night sky.





	the stars in your eyes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sumi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sumi/gifts).



Avad finds her again hours later on one of the palace's balconies, looking up at the darkened night sky. Her sunset-red hair practically gleams in the diffuse light, the faint pinpricks of it from the moon and stars, and he's nearly stunned by the vision of her, still in her shimmering ancient armor, the glow of the machine she calls a Focus above her ear. She hears him, or the way the curtain falls, and drops her hand from the air as she spins around, guiltily wide-eyed; "No," he says, "please, don't stop on my account."

"I thought I'd be alone," she says as explanation, and her gaze feels piercing as she studies him. Avad isn't used to the way she looks at him, still: not as a god or king, but straight to the man underneath. He smiles, feeling terribly, helplessly fond, and her own mouth lifts at the corners. "Were you looking for me, or looking to be alone, too?"

"You've caught me," Avad admits, and steps forward to join her on the balcony, letting his elbows rest on the railing. He doesn't find anything new in the stars, but Aloy - he could study the freckles patterning her fair skin for days. "I feel unworthy of so much praise. It was not I who saved Meridian today."

"You helped," Aloy says, with an intensity that startles him. "You, and Erend and all the Vanguardsmen, and everyone who came here - you all helped. It wasn't me either, Avad. I couldn't have done it alone."

Avad says, "And yet we couldn't have done it without you."

Aloy's mouth purses, and Avad smiles, wry. "That's no reason for them to be treating me like - like - "

She stops, when she looks at him. Avad sees the stress of the day the lines of her eyes, the tight muscles in her jaw - of more than the day, he's certain, considering how frantic she had been when she'd shared the news just the day before, the exhaustion that had already been writ in her bones. He says, carefully, "I saw you have a new name within the Nora."

"It's stupid," she says, "all of it. Superstitions because I can use the Old One's technology? I'm not special, not the way they think." But she exhales a sigh, and with it half of her tension; her mouth tilts when she glances at him again. "How do you manage being treated like a god?"

It's still so strange, just how much she understands him. "I was born to it," he says. "And I cannot compare my meagre accomplishments to yours, Aloy. All I have done - all I can do - is try to live to be the best King I can, the one I am meant to be."

"But you've already done so much for the Carja," Aloy says, shaking her head. "Your father alone..."

"I've tried," Avad admits, feeling strangely exposed. "But with the Shadow Carja, the reconstruction of our society and culture... all I can hope is that I will have done enough."

"Avad," she says. "You have."

Her eyes flit over his face, and Avad's lungs feel tight when she steps closer, reduces the space between them to a handsbreadth, until he can see the shifting colour of her green-brown eyes. Her fair eyelashes cast shadows over her cheeks and he can't stop watching her, in a way that she must be aware of for the admiration that aches tangibly in his chest. He doesn't think of her as Ersa, as she had accused him once; perhaps then, fresh with grief and longing for acceptance, but now - no. Aloy is a creature of the wilds, and it shows in everything she is: the glittering technology of the Old Ones that she wears as easily as the fabrics of Nora make, the grass and dirt and blood still tangled in her hair. He takes her hand and feels the callouses on her fingers, her skin rough from battle and worn from swinging her sparking spear, firing her well-strung bow, and says, "Aloy."

He doesn't know what she sees, when she looks into his face. A man, a king, a god; she doesn't treat him with reverence, but when she leans forward and presses her lips to his it's almost the same. Her lips are chapped and she kisses as though she's only done it a few times before, but she learns quickly and Avad's nerves are alight with her touch, the nearness of her body and the press of her fingers sliding up to his neck as she pulls him close. His fingers clutch at her hips and he wants nothing more - everything, to press her back to his luxurious sheets and map the freckles and scars across her arms, to taste every inch of her skin and see what she looks like, fire-red hair loose and wild; he wants to kiss her shoulder and see her smile and resign himself to the ache of his heart every time she leaves for the dawn.

Perhaps she sees some of it in his eyes when she pulls back and he presses a kiss to the corner of her mouth, to the curve of her jaw and the edge of her beautiful hair. "Avad," she says, breathless now, and he's caught by the warm flush of her cheeks and the sweet familiarity of her smile as she kisses him again. She manages, though: "I don't..."

"This is no obligation," Avad says, "but - Aloy. You must know how much I - "

She presses her fingertips to his lips. Avad quiets for the sincerity in her eyes. "Just for tonight," she says. "I... I have things to do in the morning."

"You lead a nomad's life," Avad says, and catches her hand when she lets it fall, brings it up to press his mouth to the inside of her wrist. "I only hope you remember you will always be welcome here in Meridian. This city will forever be open to you."

"And your bed?" she asks, with characteristic boldness, and Avad finds himself smiling without thought.

"For as long as you want it," he says, with an honesty that feels terribly vulnerable, but is worth it for her answering smile. She's as bright as the sun, a goddess all on her own, but - no. She's a woman, taking Avad's hand in hers, and he'll never regret how easily he's fallen in love.


End file.
